Possibly going 100% Independent....

Amen my hairy brother.

I call it "buying a job".

 

Ewww.... REDD... no no no to TQL and CHR. I have never seen them paying higher than anyone. As a matter of fact I have them blocked on my load board so I don't even have to see their loads. We're not even set up with them. I'm sooooo not kidding. If everyone else is paying around $1.60 TQL will be paying $1.25. Right before Turkey Day when everyone was paying out the butt for taters I was getting quotes from ID to the Midwest for $2.75-$3.00. TQL called and asked if I'd be interested in a load for $1.90/mi... seriously? WTF. Of course we're a reefer, so maybe they actually pay decent on flats... I dunno.

As for brokers, we never ran into one who wouldn't load us when our authority was brand new. And only once have we had someone make an issue out of the age of our trailer... that was a load of cherries out of WA. When they start asking about the age I start asking for more money. I let them know they don't pay enough to be out here rocking a brand new trailer to get torn up by the nimrods loading it. But like I said, it hasn't been an issue.

As for who to get set up with... lol we're set up with everybody. If they've got a good credit score and a good rate we'll haul for them. I guess we don't like to put all our eggs in one basket so to speak. I think we had 60 1099's when we did our taxes last year.

Oh jeez... ok, so this was not made by Got reefer?... it was me, Tankergirl80... One would have thought I would've figured this out before now. I guess this is what I get for getting on his computer.

 

I've hauled some good paying loads for CHR, FWIW. They're like anybody else when they get in a bind or need special handling, they'll pay to get it done. They do try to wear you down and get you to take loads for too cheap, it obviously must work sometimes.

The brokers I've found that want to see six month old authority are Admiral Merchants and Schneider (of all places). Missed out on a couple of good paying loads with those two before I had six months.

I just recently missed out on a (flatbed) General Motors load from Landstar because my trailer is over ten years old, GM has evidently extended that policy to all trailers. It was paying closer to $4/mi than $3 on about 600 miles, so I was really kicking myself on that one.

 

Rate Confirmation Sheets......

I'm sure most people are set up to recieve & send faxes in the truck.... Are signed up with a service such as efax?

I'm still investigating this, but right now I have some mechanical issues I need to chase down & toss parts at until they are fixed.

 

I use myfax.com. They are $10 a month for 200 pages.

 

big john, you are barking up the wrong tree. i did my deal with my own authority , 3 trucks and 6 guys leased on to me. 16 years of it.

when i first started it was just me, then the business grew. when fuel started to spike to 5.00 a gallon couple years ago we started cutting back, i hauled directly for several manufacturers of modular housing and several of them started shutting down . i also did the crane sets in addition to hauling. had 5 of the 8 trucks doing this and 3 running flat and reefer , with several accounts direct including new your state apple, and 3 different vidalia onion farms, etc etc. i used few brokers after a while.

fact is , it IS not as easy as some of the posters have indicated, there is much more record keeping etc. and if ya hire it all out, you are then dependent on those jokers to keep everything in order.

it is greatly determined by an individuals work ethic, his personality, and his perseverance as to where he should go completely independent. and frankly if you use brokers and dont have direct accounts with manufacturers and producers you arent really independent.

now as far as my statement about mercer being as close to having my own authority without still having it, you cant argue with that at all. cause after 16 years of having my authority i got the t-shirt been there and done that. there aint nothing you can tell me i havent experienced . from a modular section being blown over in wyoming to a drunk crashed into one at 3am on the key west causeway,to shippers going out of business owing you thousands of dollars .(19,000 to be exact heartland homes cordele,ga)

my point being , for all of us that say proceed with caution, some of you try to shout us down and paint it as a rosy picture.

one positive aspect now even mentioned in this thread is that in spite of "giving" mercer 57,000 dollars that means redd grossed 171,000 last year. which means redd's truck generated 238,000 dollars , now take away any brokers fees of 10 per cent which would be 23,800 not 5700 as some might figure .

at my current avg i will gross $210,000 , i have my current avg up to 1.74 a mile for all miles ran loaded , empty and driving to the store, basically hub miles. but mu own authority training did help with this, i know where not to go, when not to go, and why sometimes it is better to take a 1.95 load instead of the 2.61 cent a mile load.

i been there and done that and while very very rewarding , having your own authority is not nearly as rosy and easy as some of you post, and it POSITIVELY is not for everyone. one thing i might add is that if you cant work the load boards these companies now use like mercer landstar,etc to their full potential and make them work for you, can you make it work entirely on your own??

 

I am all out of cookies CP.

 

i am on a diet big john, got any salad with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil??

 

2nd on myfax.com. Have used efax in past and had more delays in faxes going out than wife had with myfax so switched.

Another handy software is PDFill. I can pull the fax onto my computer in PDF form and complete and sign it without having to print and scan to send it back. After you get the hang of it you save a tone of time.

 

I am set-up with TQL but never get a good rate but have heard many people say they have. Because I know they have a lot of business I have been avoiding taking anything cheep.

CHR has been good to me lately. On short load now heading home paying well. But have worked with this office before and they seem to like me. Plus key with CHR is to get to manager. They are the ones dealing with headaches when carrier has issues so willing to pay a little more if you have a good repuation with them.